Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-19
HOW to destroy n Railway.

How to Destroy n Railway.
Gen. Slocum, in his account of
Sherman's march through the Caro-
linas. in the Century for October, gives
these succlnct directions as to the
destruction of a railway in time of
war
"a knowledge of the art OF building
railroads is certainly OF more value to
country than that OF the best means
of destroying them but at this partic-
ular time the destruction seemed nee
essary and the time may again come
when such work will be necessary.
Lest tn most effectual and expeditions
method of destroying railroad tracks
should become one of the lost arts, l
will here give few rules for the guild
ance OF officers who may in future be
charged with this important duty. 1t
should be remembered that these rules
are the result of long experience and
close observation. A detail Of men to
do the work should be maze on the
evening before operations are to com
mence. The number to be detailed
being, of course, dependent upon
the amount of work to be
done. | estimate that one
thousand men can easily destroy
about five miles of track per day, and
do it thoroughly. Before going out in
the morning the men should be sup
piled with a good breakfast, for it has
been discovered that soldiers are
more efficient at this work, as well as
on the battlefield, when their stom-
achs are full than when they are
empty. The question as to the food
to be given the men for breakfast is
not important, but suggest roast tur-
keys, chickens, fresh eggs and coffee, Tor
the reason that in an enemys country
such breakfast will cause no un-
pleasantness between the commlssary
and the soldiers, inasmuch as the
commissary will only oe required to
provide the coffee. In fact, 1t has
been discovered that an army moving
through hostile but fertile country,
having an efficient corps OF foragers
(yulgarly known in our army as BUM
mers), requires but few articles OF
food. such as hardtack, coffee, salt,
pepper and sugar. Your detail
Should be divided into three
sections of about equal num-
bers. l will suppose the detail
to consist of three thousand men. Inc
first thing to be done is to reverse
the relative positions OF the ties and
iron rails, placing the ties up and
the rails under them. 10 DO THIS,
section No. l, consisting OF one thou-
sand men is distributed along one
side of the track, one man at the end
of each tie. At a given signal each
man seizes a tie, lifts it gently till 1t
assumes vertical position, and then
at another signal pushes it forward
so that when it falls the
ties will he over the rails. Then each
man loosens his tie from the rail.
This done, section No. l moves for
ward to another portion of the road,
and section No. 2 advances and is dis
tributed along the portion OF the road
recently occupied by section NO. l.
The duty of the second sectlon Is to
collect the ties, placing them IN piles
of about thirty ties each-pla e the
rails on top Of these piles,
the center of each rail being over
the center of the pile, and then set
fire to the ties. Section No. 2 then
follows No. l. AS soon as the rails
are sufficiently heated, section No. 3
takes the place of No. 2, and upon
this devolves the most important duty,
viz: The etfectual destruction of the
rail. This sectian should be in COM
mand of an efficient officer, who
will see that the work is
not sighted. Unless closely watched
soldiers will content themselves with
simply bending the rails around trees.
This should never be permitted. A
rail which is simply bent can easily be
restored to its original shape. No rail
should be regarded as properly treated
till it has assumed the shape OF a
doughnut; it must not only be bent
but twisted. To do the twisting
Poe's railroad hooks are neces,-
sary. for it has been found
thai the soldiers will not seize the hot
iron bare-handed. This, however, is
the only thing looking toward the de-
struction of property which l ever
knew man in Sherman's army to
decline doing. With Poe's hooks a
double twist can be given to rail
which precludes all hope OF restoring
it to its former shape except by recast-
ing"